For example, as disclosed in Patent Literature 1, a vehicle-body outer panel connection portion is known which is formed by joining a portion extending from a roof to a top of a center pillar. In such a vehicle-body outer panel connection portion, the center pillar is plastic-worked as a separate body using a high-tensile steel sheet, a roof rail is plastic-worked using a normal steel sheet, and the center pillar and the roof rail are connected to each other in the vicinity of the roof rail.
However, in the connection structure disclosed in Patent Literature 1, a step between overlapped panel members may occur in the connection portion between the top of the center pillar and the roof rail or welding marks may remain, thereby causing deterioration in appearance. Further, it is necessary to cover an outer panel edge forming a stepped portion of the connection portion with a dust sealer to prevent corrosion of the outer panel edge and thus working time for dust sealer application is required.
Further, a vehicle body for covering a connection portion is disclosed in Patent Literature 2. In the vehicle body, each of pillars such as the center pillar is vertically divided into two portions, a stepped portion formed at a boundary portion in which the upper and lower center pillars are connected to each other, and a seal tape is stuck on the stepped portion, with which a seal member provided on a door comes in contact, out of the stepped portion.
In the vehicle body disclosed in Patent Literature 2, since the seal tape is stuck on only a position corresponding to the seal member provided on the door, the seal tape is not present in the rest of the stepped portion. Thus, the stepped portion is formed in the connected portion and remains in an exposed state, thereby causing the deterioration in appearance. In addition, since the shape of the seal tape depends on the step of the connection portion, it is difficult to match the step corresponding to the seal tape with the step of the connection portion in sticking work and to perform the sticking work.